


Bang.

by FeliciaAmelloides



Series: A Oneshot a Day... [10]
Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Dystopia, Fighting, M/M, Violence, jack being aggressive, jalph hate each other, piggy being an evil mastermind, ralph being aggressive, shinsekai yori type AU, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:43:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaAmelloides/pseuds/FeliciaAmelloides
Summary: In the light of the sun, Jack and Ralph are the perfect couple. All roses and rainbows, they're virtually inseparable.But when night falls, their true selves come out as they spend the night in an underground fighting ring for those who are tired of suppressing their feelings on pain of death.((Dystopian AU, Jalph))





	Bang.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU which I'm quite excited to write about! Basically, people have a brain implant put into them when they're born. It can be manually operated by a small pin located in a tiny console on the person's chest. If the pin is removed, the person literally explodes and is wiped from existence.
> 
> In this dystopia, the ruling class control aggressive behaviour with these implants. If anyone says or does anything that is considered to be threatening, they are taken somewhere remote and 'removed'. So naturally, people managed to hack the implant and start up underground fighting rings in which people can release their tensions, both violently and non-violently.
> 
> TW for minor violence, blood and swearing.

They were the perfect couple. Constantly smiling and walking around hand in hand, displaying enough PDA to look cute but not enough to be disgusting, and they never seemed to have had an argument. Naturally, having such an argument would result in their extraction, but not a single person could read any sort of negative feelings towards the other on their faces. Those who weren't so lucky either cursed their names (silently, of course) or cheered them on.

But Jack and Ralph had a secret. One which, if exposed, would kill them both.

It started on a Friday night, the day they met. Ralph had been walking alone on the streets, the darkness making him uneasy despite knowing that nothing could happen to him. He made sure to stay as composed as possible, so there would be no reason for his extraction. Recently, the authorities had been quite strict on their extractions, and the amount of people suddenly disappearing from existence increased by the day.

A hurtling force shot towards him and knocked him off balance. Just as he was about to hit the floor, a wrist caught his own and pulled him up with force he'd never experienced before. Standing in front of him was the source of that energy. With hair like fire and eyes of steel, the boy stared at him with a firm, impassive gaze. He seemed short of breath, probably because he would have been killed if he hadn't caught Ralph in time.

From that first meeting of the eyes, Ralph experienced an emotion he never had before, not properly. Anger. And it seemed that the redhead had felt it too.

After feeling that strange connection, they had gotten closer by realising that they had nothing in common and their views were complete opposites. They slipped arguments into normal conversations, every brief touch of the hand was a punch, and their glares were disguised as long, thoughtful gazes. Then they entered the Ring.

It was musty inside, with damp touching the walls. At first, however, it was just an ordinary apartment. But then you entered the closet, and were lowered through the tiny elevator shaft hidden behind the racks of clothes into the main Ring. Once you neared the bottom, the sounds of screams, the clangs of metal and a cacophony of angered voices would reach your ears very quickly.

Jack had already known about the Ring. The two actually attended the same university, and had both gotten know the proprietor of the place- Ralph as a friend, and Jack as a customer. Known only as Piggy in some sort of mocking jab, the glasses wearing boy had learnt how to hack the life ending implants and switch them off. He could only do it in short bursts, but that was enough to get the fights going.

Some people entered the Ring and never came back out. Others only stopped for short periods of time. Fights ranged from intellectual debates to petty slap fights, with the occasional rare fight to the death between true enemies. It was the one place in the world where rage was alive and kicking. And it kicked hard.

This time was no different to all of the others. They walked into the apartment, all smiles and rose petals, then started kissing lightly as they headed to the closet. Ralph had always hated this part; the rancid exchange of hot air between him and the person he hated the most. As they entered the closet, Ralph usually letting out a small, flirtatious giggle to keep the Watchers fooled, the tension increased.

The elevator ride was filled with heated glares and silent wars. Then, with a small click, the doors slid open and they were in.

"Welcome to the Ring, gentlemen." Piggy stated flatly as he ushered them inside. As regulars and two of his best customers, he would always wait at the elevator doors to greet them inside, even though there was no need for it. Simon, the sweet, innocent, clearly underage dark haired boy who had been dragged into the Ring through an unfortunate mistake, pressed a small machine to each boy's neck in turn. The jab of the machine made Ralph wince; a drop of blood rolled down his pale, unmarked flesh. When Simon withdrew, they were in.

"Did you have to get so close that time? You smell disgusting." Ralph said immediately. It was hardly a lie: Jack almost constantly smelled of booze. The stuff was actually illegal, but the law didn't matter in the Ring. Sometimes Ralph wondered if he slept there. The blond always left the place alone. Jack scoffed,

"You're one to talk. You virtually hung off of me the whole time! The Watchers know we're together; you don't have to be so public about it." The way he said together was filled with malice, his cool blue gaze tainted with fire. It was captivating.

"Well maybe you should be less clingy. They'll start to get suspicious eventually." Ralph would usually have ignored the rage piling up in his gut, but this was the Ring. He didn't have to hide anything down in the murky depths of the Ring.

"Like hell they will. And even if they do, one of us will be long gone by then," Ralph shuddered unconsciously, remembering the deal they had made upon arriving in the Ring for the first time, "Someday, we'll have our own fight in the Cage. A fight to end all fights. A war. And whoever dies is the winner. They get their freedom." All he knew was that he wanted to be the victor of the fight. But that particular battle had never yet occurred, "Unless you've forgotten about the deal we made." Jack's expression was excessively smug. Ralph wanted to punch him.

So he did.

Jack was sent sprawling, blood spurting from his nose where he had been hit. The skin was red, and Ralph wondered if it would darken into a bruise. Probably. The redhead rose, staggering a little, and hit back with just as much force. Fortunately for the blond, Ralph was able to dodge in time and escape the hit.

"Bloody idiot..." he muttered darkly, wiping the blood from his pale face before it reached his jaw. Ralph couldn't help but stare at the red mark staining his face. If that had happened above the surface, they would have both died instantly, their pins ripped from their chests like they were nothing. In the Ring, that stain of red was a symbol of freedom.

They fought for the entire night. Mostly verbally, since they couldn't garner too many injuries without the Watchers catching on, but they did manage to have a few more physical fights before the night ended. The beeping of Ralph's alarm (Piggy had given it to him as a gift one birthday- it was only until much later that he found out that it was specially modified so that the Watchers couldn't track it, just in case he ever went to the Ring) startled him into reality. He blinked blearily, wondering if the night was really over. For some reason, he didn't want to leave Jack, even though the redhead's side was the last place he wanted to be.

Fatigue soon overtook the blond, and he turned from his opponent to Simon, the person that Piggy had placed in the apartment above the Ring to ease suspicions, and the person who would walk him to the door. "Let's get going. I have an early lecture tomorrow and I don't want to miss it because some twat kept me up all night." His voice felt disembodied, and for a moment he felt that he hadn't said anything at all. Simon nodded and wrapped a small hand around his wrist, beginning to lead him to the elevator.

"Until tomorrow, Merridew." The words were simple courtesy- they weren't supposed to mean anything to him. But as he turned and left the other behind, Ralph realised that he really would die if he didn't get to go the Ring with Jack tomorrow; to have those blazing, out of control battles which left his head pounding and his heart racing out of pure exhilaration.

"I'll be waiting." Jack's words held so much more than that, and they both knew it. Every night, they came to the Ring to die. And every night, neither did. That customary farewell was their promise to each other to have their war. But it never happened.

Maybe they just didn't want to die. But Ralph knew that that wasn't true, and if Jack hadn't wanted to die then he wouldn't have made the deal. He wasn't that sort of person. So maybe the real reason was something else. Something that he didn't want to think about; that he couldn't think about.

But somehow he knew that that reason was the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> So that was the 10th oneshot! I hope you like reading it as much as I liked writing it. I wasn't going to repeat a ship, but I love Jalph a lot- there's so much you can do with their dynamic, and I wasted it in the first chapter. I actually had a lot more that I wanted to add to this, but there was too much for just a oneshot. For example, Simon was going to have a proper backstory and maybe I would have had Rogermon in there (Rogermon is actually my NOTP, but I think that the dynamic would have worked for this particular AU and I like the challenge of writing about a ship I especially hate).
> 
> I might continue this oneshot (or at least use the AU for something else) if I get the time, meaning that I probably won't continue it ever >~<
> 
> See you soon!~
> 
> Prompt- Grenades ((yeah, it was very open to interpretation this time. I wanted it to be about a war at first, then about the song Grenade by Bruno Mars and then finally about either Kyman or Jalph. I don't want to ruin Kyman with my writing just yet so I went for Jalph))
> 
> Original Number- 15 (the first low number so far!).


End file.
